Class of super rich growing

Viet Nam's cluster of super rich individuals has tripled over the past decade, revealed World Bank (WB) senior economist Gabriel Demonbynes at a press conference in Ha Noi.

One out of every million Vietnamese qualified as "super-rich", with the total number of affluent individuals swelling almost fourfold in the last ten years, according to the World Bank's Talking Stock conference on Tuesday.

Additionally, according to global real estate giant Knight Frank, the country had roughly 110 "ultra high net worth individuals" with assets worth more than US$30 million in 2013, 34 more than the figure reported 10 years ago, he said.


According to available statistics, as of the end of 2013, Viet Nam had 30 millionaires in the securities market with assets worth more than $1 million.

Total assets belonging to the top 100 ultra high net worth individuals reached nearly VND71 trillion ($3.4 billion). Vingroup President Pham Nhat Vuong remains the nation's richest person with total assets worth nearly VND20 trillion ($950 million), up 15 per cent from last year.

Vuong is six times richer than the average millionaire in Viet Nam.

However, the WB cautioned that Vietnamese citizens were generally concerned about widening income inequality in the country.

Approximately 80 per cent of people living in urban areas list income inequality as a top concern, compared with 50 per cent of rural people.

The concerns over inequality reflect the substantial differences in economic conditions by geography and ethnic group as well as the significant inequality of opportunity.

"Opportunity" refers to children's circumstances which affect their chances of success later in life, one expert said. Children from poor households were shown to be far less likely to attend secondary school and have access to sanitation facilities and healthcare, and were much more likely to be malnourished.